Christian Education REPORT OF THE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION COMMITTEE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2008
The major thrust of the Committee‟s work has been in the joint work with the Evangelism Committee in developing the possibilities of employing someone to assist a congregation (or congregations) and in the developing of an evangelism training programme. [See Joint Report of Evangelism & Christian Education Committees for this] It might be fair to say that this year the Committee finally found its feet, and sees itself as working in three main areas; denominationally; church-based; and with leaders. DENOMINATIONAL We see the “Bannockburn Event” of continuing value, not only in the training and teaching, but in the fellowship and mutual encouragement it provides. This year the event will be on Saturday 30th August and the theme will be “Celebrating the Word”, and we are grateful for the help of the Scottish Bible Society in developing this theme. Again we would encourage all to set aside this date to come together. We are also grateful to the team who put the whole programme together. This year there has been a certain „freshening up‟ of the people on the team, not least since many have been working on the workshops events since the very start, and we are likewise very grateful to those who have laboured long, but have now been able to pass on the baton. CHURCH BASED The Training Team is able to provide a wide, and widening, range of training events on a one-off basis or in a series of courses from pastoral issues to faith sharing. The initiative for this must come from the individual churches and we would again simply encourage churches – or groups of churches – to take up the opportunities available. Leaflets with full information on the training courses available can be obtained from Church Office. LEADERS We still view this as an area that needs to be progressed. We were asked to look at the possibility of resuming the Leaders Forum at the General Assembly, and that will be happening this year because of the evangelism training; but we want to explore this further for the following years. We do feel it is important to find ways to encourage reading amongst church leaders and we thank David Cartledge for his contribution which although aimed at all members, has particular relevance for leaders. We have discussed the possibility of another opportunity during the year, other than the In-Service Training which the Ministry Committee organise, to gather Ministers and pastors, but this also needs further exploration.
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